The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for trimming flat products along a predetermined cutting line. The printed products are continuously fed in succession in a feed direction parallel to a plane defined by the printed products. The printed products are passed between two superposed knives, each knife having a cutting edge facing the other cutting edge.
Such methods and apparatuses are used to further process printed products, such as magazines, newspapers, brochures or books, and printed sheet for books. Trimming of the top, bottom and front edges of the printed products is traditionally performed after the magazines and newspapers are collated, or after the brochures or books and printed sheets for books are bound or stitched.
For example, Swiss Patent Application CH-A-650967 discloses an apparatus for trimming sheets of paper. The sheets of paper are transported lying on a plane of a feeder device or conveyor, through a cutting device, and along a predetermined cutting line. This known cutting device has a rotating knife disk which presses against a counterpart knife, and from which a number of knives radially protrude.
This known apparatus has an improved cutting quality, compared with another known cutting device in which a rotating knife disk and a counterpart rotating knife disk have circular blades, which are suitable for trimming only relatively thin printed products.